After two people died in a six-vehicle crash in suburban Batavia on Monday, residents are pleading with officials to take action to prevent similar tragedies along a stretch of roadway that locals say has been dubbed “Killer Kirk.”
According to police, the crash occurred just after 1:30 p.m. in the 1300 block of South Kirk Road.
When authorities arrived, they found that one vehicle had flipped over on its roof, and both of the individuals inside were dead.
In all, six vehicles were involved in the crash, including a semi-truck that was pulling a fuel tank.
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This road has been a source of pain and worry for residents for years, and neighbors are worried that without changes, there will be more tragedy in the years to come.
“I heard a loud bang, and I thought something fell on our house,” neighbor Art Blodgett said. “I went ‘holy cow! There’s a car turned over upside down.’”
Ben Kielion also rushed outside, and immediately saw that the two occupants of the flipped over vehicle had suffered catastrophic injuries.
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“I went over to the other car, and those two were not doing good,” he recalled.
Police have not yet released a cause for the crash, but say that the collision started when a car tried to change lanes and slammed into a semi. The vehicle then swerved into oncoming traffic, causing a massive crash that shut down Kirk for several hours.
“We’ve always called it ‘Killer Kirk,’” Kielion said. “It’s always been dangerous. There’s never been turn lanes, and people speed down these streets.”
Now, neighbors are left to hope that this latest fatal crash will be the one that spurs action to fix the issues that have plagued the area for years.
